CHECKUP

Published 1:23 pm, Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Statins, the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, may have a role in surgical wound healing, a new analysis suggests.

The review, published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, covered 20 studies of statins and surgical wound healing.

They demonstrated various mechanisms by which statins can lower inflammation, improve the mechanical strength of a healing wound, promote the growth of blood vessels and reduce healing time.

Most were animal or laboratory tissue studies, but two were studies in humans.

In one, a retrospective study of 10,782 patients having hernia surgery, statins showed no beneficial effect, but the study failed to account for the use of blood-thinning drugs, which may have affected the results. The other, in six volunteers, showed that statins could reduce the activity of one of the mediators of inflammation, white blood cell production, without affecting its beneficial function in healing.

The lead author of the review, Dr. Gerard J. Fitzmaurice, a cardiac surgeon in Dublin, said most cardiac patients were on statins before surgery, and that the drugs were extremely safe.

"The caveat here is that the majority of this is animal research," he said. "But a human randomized trial is now merited to properly answer the question. If statins are beneficial, it could be a big progression in wound management."

It's a bit snarky and a none-too-subtle dig at those who spend a lot of time on our rear ends. But Dr. James Levine, who is credited with it, is dead serious. In fact, he says, sitting could be worse than smoking.

What to do about it? "Get Up!" is the title of Levine's new book, a jovial tale of how he came to the scientific conclusion that our chairs are killing us.